Welcome to the Electric Car Department Update.

You might realize that I didn't update things last week. Well, that was the weekend of the Safety Meeting, Rules Test, and the Annual Meeting. Those pretty much consumed the weekend, with some work being done on Sunday on the usual Suspects. The biggest news would be that CTA 3142 has been moved off of the pit, and released for service.

CNS&M 160 made it's way over to the pit for the undercarriage inspection. That started last week, and concluded over this past weekend. By Sunday afternoon, the car was for the most part finished, and moved back to Barn 6. The two CNS&M (160 and 714) still have to be sequenced before they can be run together, but that should take place next weekend.

CA&E 431 was the next car over to the pit. There were some rope replacements, and other little bits that were done on this car.

The "L" guys worked on the inspections of the 4000, which will conclude this Thursday and Friday if all goes well. Painting of parts for the 4000's continued as well.

Along with the Yard 5 moves that have been going on, the S-105 has moved temporarily to yard 6, and the ITC caboose moved onto the 40 track.

On a more personal note... running the coach train on Saturday was a day that, as one trainman said, "took the romance out of railroading." It was quite windy with ice or sleet or some sort of stuff hitting as we pushed backwards. On the plus side there were good crowds out considering the weather on Saturday for the "Scrap-a-train" day. The next event is the Electric Car Department shop tours on Saturday.

Please make sure you read all of the other Electric Cars that are contained in the other blogs such as in the Freight Car Department and at the Hicks blog site hickscarworks (dot) blogspot (dot) com.

Welcome to the blog for the Freight Car Department at the Illinois Railway Museum. Here you will see updates on projects, maintenance and repair schedules and news on pending or proposed acquisitions. Also, our department seems to be the defacto manager of the IRM Woodshop. Stay tuned for notes on projects that include making piles of sawdust.

The images on these blogs are 'thumbnails' only, but if you click on them with the left mouse button, you will see the full image. If there is a project you are interested in, please contact me and we will try to get pics/updates of work our dept may be doing in that area.

To take advantage of the info elsewhere on the IRM website you will also see links to other areas of interest.

Bob Kutella
Collection Curator

Shown here is a rare color photo of the locomotive circa 1955. This is the scheme being used for restoration work. For you die hard fans here is the ROSTER info for this piece of equipment.

Yes, this is rightfully in the Electric Car Department project list, but the Project Manager, Pete Galayda, generally works every Wednesday only, and all that in the Woodshop - Barn 4 complex.

Pete Galayda has created a nice Gallery Record of photos as the work has progressed the last several years. To see more of this click HERE

Pete has been faithfully and regulary working on this as his "project" since 2001. I will try to add some VERY condensed notes and history so you can appreciate the scope of the project and its ACCOMPLISHMENTS!

2007 -

New deck plates were fabricated and welded in place at both ends. These steel plates served to reinforce the framing and make the loco more rigid. They lie below the wood tongue and groove planks, which is what most will see and recognize once this is complete. The wood for this deck topping was made, one piece at a time, each stamped and numbered for its final placement. No two alike! Then new angle iron was ordered and fitted to trim out and protect the ends of this wood decking. The new steelwork was necessitated by severe rust out, probably contributed to by the wood decking on top of it holding water and moisture.

2006 -

2006 began by building and installing new windows for both cab doors, and installing the completed doors. Inside the cab the tool boxes were re-built, painted and installed. Exterior painting continued on the cab, sides, and windows, with the south side recieving its final paint and lettering. A lot of needlechipping, sanding, and bodywork took place on the west hood. Steel was delivered for the new plating on the end decks.


4/23/2008



Here, Pete Galayda works in the Woodshop, painting the metal bands which will be used to secure the two air tanks to the West Deck of the engine.

5/4/2008



Project Manager Norm Krentel was doing layout work on new tack molding for this historic interurban. Last season most of the remaining old roof was removed, and now the new parts are starting to go on the car.



Here we have rearranged the furniture a bit to allow the very long pieces of tack molding to be squared up by Norm using our disk sander.

This GN freight car is the only true hopper in the IRM collection at this time. It now resides on Track 40 east of Barn 4. We are hoping to start serious restoration work on the car this season, beginning with structural and cosmetic steel repairs. This all depends on funding, so please consider a donation to the Freight Car Department.



Here is a close up of the classic "ROCKY" Great Northern herald, still faintly visible 51 years after this car was built!

Here is the ROSTER info for this car.

Note that at this time the on line Roster has not been corrected to reflect the Great Northern number and reporting marks, although this is the restoration plan.